Aspects of this disclosure relate generally to telecommunications, and more particularly to techniques for handling data stall in wireless local area networks (WLANs).
The deployment of WLANs in the home, the office, and various public facilities is commonplace today. Such networks typically employ a wireless access point (AP) that connects a number of wireless stations (STAs) in a specific locality (e.g., home, office, public facility, etc.) to another network, such as the Internet or the like. A set of STAs can communicate with each other through a common AP in what is referred to as a basic service set (BSS). Nearby BSSs may have overlapping coverage areas and such BSSs may be referred to as overlapping BSSs or OBSSs.
Wireless stations, also referred to as wireless or mobile devices, may use more than one modem to allow seamless connectivity for certain applications. In one scenario, a wireless station may include a WLAN modem (e.g., Wi-Fi modem) and a wireless wide area network (WWAN) modem (e.g., cellular modem) to enable such seamless connectivity. The wireless stations may then select between a WLAN and a WWAN for wireless communications based on the availability of the network, the data rates that can be achieved, and user preference. For example, a user may typically prefer to connect to a Wi-Fi network over a cellular network because cellular data usage is more costly. As such, the wireless station may be configured to select network connectivity over a Wi-Fi network instead of network connectivity over a cellular network when a Wi-Fi network is available. However, Wi-Fi networks have a shorter range than cellular networks and at the edge of the Wi-Fi network the data rates can be low whereas packet error rate (PER) can be high. In such cases, selecting a Wi-Fi network (e.g., Wi-Fi network connectivity) instead of a cellular network (e.g., cellular network connectivity) can result in poor user experience. Because of the preference for Wi-Fi networks, it is likely that the wireless station will remain connected to the Wi-Fi network and any current applications (e.g., video) cannot be properly run because of limited to no data exchanges, resulting in what is referred to as a “data stall.” The user may then have to manually disconnect from the Wi-Fi network to get out of the data stall condition.
Accordingly, it may be desirable to have techniques that handle data stall conditions to provide a better experience for the user.